Public and private sector perks

The Observer is reporting a Mirror story on a new MP expenses row, this time about the Speaker himself. Read the piece to see the not-particularly-gory details, but it centres around the use of air miles gained on official business for family trips to London.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I thought the point of Air Miles was to enable travellers to get some payback on their travel, and to keep them loyal customers on whatever airline it is. Certainly, the frequent business travellers I know use Air Miles for themselves, even if they earn them on their company's dime.

I therefore just don't understand the rules that ban Ministers and officials from using Air Miles gained on official business for their own purposes. It's not like stealing office supplies - you don't pay extra to get Air Miles. I suppose one reason for the ban might be that it discourages people from booking unnecessarily expensive flights, or travelling more than they need, but I would have thought that if that was the aim, more effective safeguards could be put in place, while still allowing people some small payback on the miseries of airline travel.

There's a wider reflection here of a modern paradox: paranoia about use of "taxpayers' money", combined with a complete insouciance about the same public's money when put into Barclays, Orange or one of the other big oligopolies. Public servants get lower average pay, few bonuses and much more public scrutiny than their private sector counterparts. They can't travel first class (a friend who works in a senior role at a major bank is banned from travelling economy in case it reflects badly on the bank), they can't accept gifts of more than £25 value, and, of course, they can't use those free air miles. Honours, job security, and public sector ethos are meant to bridge the gap - but it's a gap that's starting to look pretty wide.

Comments

[Mark Mitchell]

I disagree. Depending on where you are positioned in the public sector it can be as bad or good as the private sector. However, unlike the private sector there is a fundamental responsibility to uphold the public interest to provide a good service without corruption. Most people acknowledge some level of corruption in the public sector and many senior people do tend to get away with rather anomalous actions. It is the workers at the bottom of the public sector ladders where the gap between private and public sector is widening mainly due to pay frozen below inflation.